INTEGRATING EVIDENCE FOR ENHANCED LAND RESTORATION PRACTICE AND POLICY IN AFRICA

GlobalLandscapesForum

RESTORING AFRICA’S DRYLANDSACCELERATING ACTION ON THE GROUND

#GLFAfrica

WHITE PAPERWhite paper prepared by

Funded by the European Union

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SESSION BACKGROUND

• Environmental degradation was recognized, for the first time, as ranking among the top five global risks prioritized by world leaders under the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report in 2020.1

Furthermore, the urgent need for restoration was highlighted by the declaration of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. This is significant because two-thirds of the land in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is already degraded to some degree.2 Restoring degraded lands is critical for tackling climate change, enhancing biodiversity and improving human wellbeing.

• Restoration of degraded landscapes requires effective planning and implementation of diverse and contextually appropriate practices, as well as an enabling policy environment. Effective work is underway but there is a disconnect between practice, science and policy that hampers scaling.

• Science and development have long been considered as separate silos, with limited interaction between them. This has led to a call for research ‘in’ rather than ‘for’ development.3

• Our session will highlight tools and approaches for measuring regreening progress, showcase some of the results and outline a novel partnership between science and practice that enhances integration of evidence in the planning, implementation and policy processes.

1 World Economic Forum. 2020. The Global Risks Report 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risk_Report_2020.pdf2 Economic Commission for Africa. 2007. Africa Review Report on Drought and Desertification in Africa, http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd16/rim/eca_bg3.pdf3 Coe, Richard, Fergus Sinclair, and Edmundo Barrios. 2014. “Scaling up Agroforestry Requires Research ‘in’ Rather than ‘for’ Development.” Sustainability Challenges 6 (February): 73–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2013.10.013.

We also highlight experiences from the Regreening Africa initiative. Funded by the European Union (EU), Regreening Africa is an ambitious five-year project that intends to reverse land degradation among 500,000 households, across one million hectares in eight countries by incorporating trees into agricultural and pastoral landscapes. More information is available at: https://regreeningafrica.org/

SESSION AIM

The session will share evidence from the EU-funded Regreening Africa initiative, which shows that the integration of multiple approaches, infused with a variety of scientific disciplines and local perspectives, can positively inform restoration practice and policy.

We seek to address, in part, the following questions:1. What are the most promising ways of melding multiple tools

and approaches to deliver, support and monitor restoration? 2. How can we better integrate science, practice and policy to

scale up impactful restoration interventions across Africa’s drylands?

3. How can science more effectively share evidence with stakeholders to boost their ability to take better and more inclusive land-restoration decisions?

This white paper was prepared by: Mieke Bourne, Leigh Ann Winowiecki, Tor Vågen, Muhammad Nabi Ahmad, Judith Odoul, Alex Mugayi, Mamadou Fotigui Coulibaly, Marion Aluoch, Sammy Carson, Constance Neely

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KEY MESSAGES

• With recent advances in remote sensing, citizen science and data analytics, there are real opportunities for targeting, prioritizing and tracking landscape restoration investments across large areas. Innovative monitoring tools can be implemented and scaled to inform ecosystem restoration investments.

• The Joint Reflective Learning Missions (JRLMs), which were developed using the SHARED methodology4 to create an innovative monitoring, reflection and learning opportunity between implementing NGOs, scientists, and government have been effective and could be adapted and scaled.

• Adaptive management integrating science, community and development perspectives is critical to ensure we continually improve our interventions and enhance restoration of the drylands.

4 SHARED is the Stakeholder Approach to Risk Informed and Evidence Based Decision Making: https://www.worldagroforestry.org/shared Figure 1. Joint Reflective and Learning Mission process.

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REMAINING QUESTIONS

What is needed to change the perception of the role of science in development?

Figure 2. Example of evidence that will be shared through online open access decision dashboards.

REFERENCES AND BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

Joint Reflective Learning Missions (JRLM) report 2020 https://regreeningafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2020_Regreening-Africa-JRLM-Summary_ONLINE_31_03_21.pdf

Joint Reflective Learning Missions (JRLM) report 2019 https://regreeningafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/JRLM-Synthesis-Report.pdf

Regreening Africa Annual Report 2019-2020 https://regreeningafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Regreening-Annual-Report-EXTERNAL_Online.pdf

Restoration of Degraded Land for Food Security and Poverty Reduction in East Africa and the Sahel: Employing a farmer-centered approach in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali and Niger brief: https://regreeningafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Planned-Comparisons-2020_Land-Restoration-Full-Brief_compressed.pdf

Nested Communities of practice brief: https://regreeningafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ICRAF_Land-Restoration_Community-of-Practice_FINAL_SPREAD.pdf

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Number of trees

Tree planting by country

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Summary of data collected using the regreeningAfrica App across project countries

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Number of trees planted Number of trees survived

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PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS

GLF Africa Digital Conference 2021 would not be possible without the support and participation of the following hosts, partners and organizations. For a full list of everyone involved, please visit: events.globallandscapesforum.org/africa-2021/partners

GLOBAL LANDSCAPES FORUM

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, dedicated to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement. The Forum takes a holistic approach to create sustainable landscapes that are productive, prosperous, equitable and resilient and considers five cohesive themes of food and livelihood initiatives, landscape restoration, rights, finance and measuring progress. It is led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in collaboration with its co-founders UN Environment and the World Bank and Charter Members.

Charter Members: CIAT, CIFOR, CIRAD, Climate Focus, Conservation International, Crop Trust, Ecoagriculture Partners, EFI, Evergreen Agriculture, FSC, GEF, GIZ, ICIMOD, IFOAM - Organics International, ILRI, INBAR, IPMG, IUFRO, Rainforest Alliance, Rare, RRI, SAN, UN Environment, (TMG) Think Tank, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, part of Wageningen Research, WFO, World Agroforestry, World Bank Group, WRI, WWF Germany, Youth in Landscapes Initiative.

RESTORING AFRICA’S DRYLANDSACCELERATING ACTION ON THE GROUND

bit.ly/GLFAfrica2021